By CHARLES FRANCIS SAUNDERS 
{Decorated Title by Elisabeth Hallowell Saunders) 
A mong the native American arts which are 
rapidly passing away, as more and more the 
Indian comes under the influence of' the 
white man’s schooling, is pottery making. This is 
an art which has been particularly developed by the 
so-called Pueblo Indians, a general term including 
peoples of diverse stock and language inhabiting 
communal villages of stone and adobe in New 
Mexico and Arizona. They differ from the better- 
known Plains Indians—the red men of romance and 
the War Department—in being not nomadic but 
dwellers in fixed abodes. They are, in the main, 
peaceable farmer and pastoral folk, whose small, 
clay-colored towns in a land as picturesque as Egypt 
or Palestine, were established before St. Augustine 
was founded or Jamestown dreamed of. 
Some of these communities have now practically 
ceased to be producers of pottery; and by none, in 
the judgment of connoisseurs, is the art now prac¬ 
tised in the perfection of an older day. Neverthe¬ 
less at such places as Acoma, Sia, Santa Clara, Zuni 
and the Hopi villages, there are good potters still 
whose work would be an adornment to any cultured 
home; and it is to the decorative value of this dis¬ 
tinctive American work that the present article would 
briefly call attention. In all cases the Indian potters 
are women, creating graceful, symmetrical shapes 
without the use of a wheel or other mechanical help, 
and laying on the design with pigments of their own 
manufacture, applied usually with a bit of yucca leaf. 
One of the most useful forms for home decoration 
is the water jar, of which several shapes are shown 
in the photographic heading of this article. The 
large ones, with their striking designs in red and 
black on a white ground, are particularly effective 
as jardiniers for the veranda or a corner of the liv¬ 
ing-room. Smaller forms make charming holders 
for cut flowers in masses, for the center of a table or 
for a mantel shelf. The decoration presents a variety 
of interesting patterns; sometimes embodying crude 
representations of animals—as in the Zuni jar shown 
in the left hand photograph; sometimes convention¬ 
alized flower and leaf forms are the groundwork of 
the design; but more often it consists of a decorative 
arrangement of geometrical figures, some of which 
appear to be meaningless while others are recognized 
symbols of natural phenomena, such as clouds, light¬ 
ning, rain, the earth or the heavens. Always, how¬ 
ever, the work of the best potters manifests a sense 
of harmony in color and a just balancing of the parts 
of the design that confess the true artist, who, albeit 
ignorant of schools, has received under the wide 
skies of her desert home a gift direct from the uni¬ 
versal Spirit of Art itself. In the work of the Santa 
Clara Indians of the upper Rio Grande valley, an 
interesting departure from the usual types is found 
in a plain black ware unrelieved by any decoration, 
the charm of the piece residing in the outlines which 
are often exceedingly light and graceful. A form of 
Santa Clara vase with two slender necks is especially 
characteristic. 
After finishing her large pieces, the Indian potter 
delights in moulding from the odds and ends of the 
clay, little nicknacks for the children. Such bits 
are often quaint and interesting and capable of being 
put to use in the civilized room—as for match re¬ 
ceivers, trays for sweets, or receptacles for small 
bunches of short-stemmed flowers. 
In selecting Indian pottery there is great choice 
even among pieces of the same pueblo’s ware. Not 
all of it is good art. As a rule, pieces that have been 
made for the maker’s own use rather than for sale, 
are the best both as to design, lightness and dura¬ 
bility. The strength of a well-made Indian jar is 
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